Marco Rubio: Post missed 'real essence' of family story

The Florida senator pens an op-ed for POLITICO, arguing that there's a big difference between "getting a few dates wrong" and meaningfully misrepresenting the story of his family's arrival in the United States:

If The Washington Post wants to criticize me for getting a few dates wrong, I accept that. But to call into question the central and defining event of my parents’ young lives – the fact that a brutal communist dictator took control of their homeland and they were never able to return – is something I will not tolerate.

My understanding of my parents’ journey has always been based on what they told me about events that took place more than 50 years ago — more than a decade before I was born. What they described was not a timeline, or specific dates.

They talked about their desire to find a better life, and the pain of being separated from the nation of their birth. What they described was the struggle they faced growing up, and their obsession with giving their children the chance to do the things they never could.

But the Post story misses the point completely. The real essence of my family’s story is not about the date my parents first entered the United States. Or whether they travelled back and forth between the two nations. Or even the date they left Fidel Castro’s Cuba forever and permanently settled here.

Rubio's pushback on the Post story has been relentless and it has at least partly succeeded at mitigating the impression that the report was a body blow to his national prospects.

The reality is that anytime a politician has to say that the literal facts are less important than the bigger story, he's arguing from a weak position. But Rubio's response has likely been strong enough to satisfy his fans and put real distance between himself and any early comparisons to Richard Blumenthal.

"a brutal communist dictator took control of their homeland and they were never able to return"

"The real essence of my family’s story is not about the date my parents first entered the United States. Or whether they travelled back and forth between the two nations."

Sorry bud, but either your parents were exiled and couldn't return, or they traveled back and forth. Which is it? I know, the pesky facts can be inconvenient to the narrative your handelers have drawn up!

Man up and admit you embellished the story a little...

Personally, I've lost interest with the son of a mill worker (Edwards), barkeep (Bohner), single mother (Obama), miner (Reid), etc stories. Maybe try being your own man and stop hanging on your parents' legacy.

Alexander Burns, I can easily and quickly prove you and Maggie along with hundreds of millions of Americans, I can prove almost all of you are descendant children of illegal aliens who slaughtered true Americans by the tens of millions then took their lands.

You, Alexander Burns, enjoy an American lifestyle through murderous genocide of tens of millions of true Americans. Shall I present a viable argument your family legacy is based upon horrific murderous genocide?

You are going after this family legacy of Marco Rubio. This would be fitting for me, a true American, to go after your family legacy which is the most immoral and loathsome family legacy of all written history.

Oh my, the spilled blood of my family is all over America and all over your hands, Alexander.

I am thinking I should rattle those skeletons hidden in your family legacy closet.

There was a cavalry soldier with a last name of Ingersoll who participated in the slaughter of American Indian men, women and children at Wounded Knee. Is this soldier your great-grandfather?

You are to ask your parents and your grandparents about this. Listen carefully to what those good folks tell you. Return here and cite dates related to your family history to determine if your great-grandfather was one of those who horrifically slaughtered Indians.

Should you cite a single mistaken date, I will pronounce your great-grandparents, your grandparents, your parents and you, I will pronounce all of you as liars. Doesn't matter if your grandparents are elderly and cannot quite remember right. If a single date you cite is mistaken, your entire family for the past century, all are liars.

This is the rule you, Alexander Burns, the Washington Post and millions of left liberals are applying to Marco Rubio. This rule applies to you as well. A single time frame mistake, even if because of a family member being age addled, a single mistaken date and all of you in your family are liars. This is your rule, you are to obey this rule you apply to Marco Rubio.

This Corporal Ingersoll who participated in a horrific slaughter of Indian families at Wounded Knee, is this Ingersoll murderous maniac your great-grandfather? Did your great-grandfather slaughter Indian children?

Remember, if you cite a single incorrect date, you and your family will be branded, liars. This is your rule.

Tell me, Robert, how will you feel if I label your parents, liars? You and millions are attacking the family of Marco Rubio, you are attacking his parents. This is turnabout fair I do the same to you. How do you feel about my attacking your family?

Remember, if you cite a single incorrect date, you and your family will be branded, liars

Very weak attempt at spin. The date is of importance because Marco had claimed the were exiles from Castro's Cuba and the date of their arrival years before Castro was in Cuba proves the lie - but you knew all that, didn't you.

My parents were immigrants from Germany. They got here in the 1920s. If I said they fled Hitler's Germany it would be a lie...Same for Marco.

They’re done with Michelle Bachmann who was successfully painted as just another stupid, Republican woman like Sarah Palin despite her law degrees and stint as an IRS attorney.

They ignore Gary Johnson, Buddy Roemer, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, and Ron Paul because none of them stand a chance of snagging the GOP nomination. They buried Donald Trump under a still-suspect birth certificate and have labeled Herman Cain as nothing more than a token, a pizza store owner. They’re still in process of dismantling Rick Perry with charges of stupidity and blood lust and have made Mitt Romney an Obamacare accomplice.

However, Obama’s Democrats never feared any of them with the gut terror they experience with a 40 year old son of an immigrant, the newly-elected United States senator from the State of Florida, Marco Antonio Rubio.

Right now, Senator Rubio poses the major threat to President Barack Hussein Obama because he’s the anti-Obama, the embodiment of everything the president isn’t–pro-life, pro-balanced budget, pro-family and normal marriage, pro-charter schools, pro-drilling, pro-Second Amendment, pro-strong national defense, pro-real government and tax reform, and pro-border security.

If that were not sufficient to scare the pants off liberals, Rubio opposes Obamacare, amnesty for illegal aliens, phony economic stimuli, endless death row appeals, federal intrusions into public education, crippling cap and trade legislation, card check legislation, and punitive taxation.

Oh, and he loves his country, he’s an hispanic Catholic, and he doesn’t have Dumbo ears, a definite cosmetic plus in our looks-obsessed culture.

What Marco Rubio also has are credentials and credibility, features sorely lacking in the current White House resident.

Born in 1971 to Cuban immigrants–legal immigrants, not the kind Obama favors–graduate of the University of Florida, University of Miami School of Law (cum laude), 5-term member of the Florida House of Representatives, elected Speaker of that body in 2007, published author (without Bill Ayers’ ghostwriting), elected to the United States Senate in 2008, Rubio outshines Obama across the board but isn’t a candidate opposing him.